


Defensive (the Teach Your Children Remix)

by cosmic_llin



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Remix, Teaching, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 15:50:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21200186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: A scathing editorial by the Great Wizard gets Ada thinking about her future.





	Defensive (the Teach Your Children Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yetanotherramblingfangirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yetanotherramblingfangirl/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Archive](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20554745) by [yetanotherramblingfangirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yetanotherramblingfangirl/pseuds/yetanotherramblingfangirl). 

The editorial was a little unkind, Ada thought.

That was what she told herself she thought, anyway, right at the top of her mind. Underneath, hurt and anger seethed, wanting to burst out, but she was doing her best to ignore it.

To be thought incompetent - that was nothing. Her methods had always been unusual and she’d long since stopped caring whether anyone judged her for that. But to have her motivations questioned, that was something harder to bear. To think that anyone - let alone the Great Wizard himself! - could suggest for a moment that she didn’t always have her students’ best interests at heart! She thought of her students’ parents reading the paper over their breakfasts, what it would make them think of her. She blinked away tears.

And suddenly Hecate was there, transferring into the room, her expression furious. 

‘I came as soon as I saw,’ she said. A copy of the newspaper was in her hand. ‘Ada, have you… I suppose you’ve…’

Ada nodded. ‘Yes. I’ve seen it.’

‘How dare he?’ Hecate cried. ‘How  _ dare _ he, after everything you’ve done?’

Strangely, Hecate’s fury was like a gentle rain, putting out the flame of Ada’s own anger. Seeing her expression, sensing from halfway across the room the passion of her rage, Ada suddenly felt safe. Hecate’s belief in her was like a shield that could deflect even the most vicious blows.

The disastrous visit earlier in the year had certainly given the Great Wizard plenty of ammunition, even if almost everything that had gone wrong had been down to Agatha’s interference. This wasn’t the first time in the months since that there had been jabs aimed in her direction, from him and from others on the Magic Council.

‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘I won’t stand for it, Ada,’ Hecate said, and she flung the newspaper on the desk as though the very touch of it offended her. ‘I will not allow that intolerable, ignorant, long-winded…’

‘Hecate,’ said Ada.

There was no sense in Hecate upsetting herself over it. The mere fact that she cared this much had already soothed the ache in Ada’s soul. They would weather this storm together like they had weathered countless others. 

Ada’s genuine unconcern was enough to mollify Hecate, and a few minutes and a handful of stolen kisses later, she went to prepare for her first class of the day.

When she had gone, Ada took out the newspaper again and stared at it. This time the words didn’t pierce her like they had. She barely read them. She was thinking not about their content but about what they might represent.

Hecate wasn’t from a teaching family, the way Ada was, and she was focused enough on her potions and her students that perhaps she hadn’t thought about it much. But Ada had been half-expecting something like this for a while.

Of the last dozen leaders of the Council, at least half had been former teachers. Off the top of her head, Ada could name four of her own ancestors who had held the title of Great Witch. Teachers were influential enough in the witching world that headmistresses often made the transition to leadership of communities much larger than individual schools. And among the teachers of witching kind, there were few more respected than the Cackles.

Ada had been headmistress for many years now. It wouldn’t be at all unreasonable to expect that she would look to the Magic Council next, with designs on eventually becoming the Great Witch.

This new undercurrent of hostility from the Great Wizard, this constant picking at her decisions, her methods - she was almost certain it was at least partly a fear that she would try to take his place. She was experienced, old enough to wield considerable magical power, and generations of Cackle’s Academy students might be expected to be loyal to her.

It sounded perfectly plausible, if one didn’t know her at all.

* * *

‘Hecate?’ she asked, as they lay in bed that evening, Hecate’s head nestled in the curve of her neck and shoulder, ‘do you think I’d make a good Great Witch?’

Hecate startled. ‘Ada! You’re not thinking of…’

‘No, no, of course not! Just… an idle question, that’s all.’

Hecate pulled back a little, frowned at her. ‘Do you mean that?’

Ada sighed. ‘I’m not sure any more,’ she said. 

She explained her theory about the Great Wizard’s escalating campaign against her.

‘I would never have thought of it on my own,’ she said. ‘But now that all of this has raised the possibility… I can’t help wondering whether it’s something I should consider.’

‘And leave the school?’

‘I hate the thought,’ Ada admitted.

‘Then why entertain it?’

‘I’m not even sure. But sometimes I catch myself watching the way the current Council do things and thinking… surely there must be a better way than this?’

Hecate sat up. ‘Ada,’ she said, ‘I have no doubt that if you chose to join the Magic Council, you could be the best Great Witch the world has ever seen. But just because you would be good at it, that doesn’t oblige you.’

‘Doesn’t it?’

‘Not  _ everything _ you do has to be in service of others,’ Hecate said gently.

‘No?’ Ada asked.

‘No,’ said Hecate, with a sly smile. ‘Sometimes, you might even let other people do  _ you _ a service…’

Her hand slid up Ada’s thigh, brushing aside the silk of her nightgown. For the time being, Ada let herself be distracted from the question.

* * *

A few weeks later, Mildred Hubble saved the school from destruction. Hearing about it afterwards, freed from her hellish imprisonment in the painting, Ada wished desperately that she could have been there to see it - all of her girls working together, a piece of spontaneous, genuine collaborative magic in service of the whole community. And Mildred leading them all - Mildred, whose place at the school had been in doubt all year. 

She had been right to have faith in her.

‘Well?’ she couldn’t resist teasing Hecate, as they waved off the last few girls on their brooms, ‘aren’t you glad now that I let Mildred stay?’

‘I’ll concede that she showed considerable courage and presence of mind,’ Hecate said.

Ada thought she was trying not to smile. She had a sneaking suspicion that Hecate was actually rather fond of the child.

‘And great leadership, I thought,’ said Ada. ‘For a girl of her age, and so new to witchcraft. I know she’s a little… unusual, but I see her going far, with the right guidance and support.’

‘You may be right,’ said Hecate. ‘And if she does, it’ll be because you saw that potential in her. I’m… I’m sorry I doubted you.’

‘Nonsense, it’s your job to doubt me, when it comes to the school,’ said Ada. 

But the idea pleased her, that she had been able to nurture Mildred’s talents, and in turn Mildred had saved the school. There was an appealing balance to it, a sense of continuity. 

‘You know... I’d much rather teach a future Great Witch than be one,’ Ada said.

Hecate looked sharply at her. 

They hadn’t talked about it much since the editorial - too much else going on. But Ada hadn’t stopped thinking about it. Now, though, her mind was made up for good.

‘You think Mildred could become the Great Witch someday?’ Hecate asked.

Ada shrugged. ‘Who knows? I certainly don’t, but if she ever does, I hope the things she’s learned here will stand her in good stead. And the same for all of them. I think I can put a lot more good into the world that way than I ever could on my own, even as the Great Witch.’

‘I think you’re right,’ said Hecate. ‘I also think that, for the next few weeks, you need only think about what’s good for Ada Cackle.’

‘It’s a nice thought,’ said Ada, ‘but there’s so much to plan for next term, so much to catch up on…’

Hecate looked affectionately at her. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘I won’t pretend you don’t have a point. But shall we at least start with a cup of tea and a sit down?’

‘That does sound like a good idea,’ Ada conceded.

And if the cup of tea turned into a gentle twilight stroll, and if that stroll turned into an early night, and the early night turned into a late night and an even later morning, well - she supposed she had more than earned it.


End file.
